Everything Was Goodbye

The youngest of six daughters raised by a widowed mother, Meena is a young Indo-Canadian woman struggling to find her place in the world. She knows that the freedom experienced by others is beyond her reach. But unlike her older sisters, Meena refuses to accept a life dictated by tradition. Against her mother’s wishes, she falls for a young man named Liam who asks her to run away with him. She must then make a painful choice—one that will lead to stunning and irrevocable consequences.

 

Heartbreaking and beautiful, Everything Was Good-bye is an unforgettable story about family, love, loss, and the struggle of living in two different cultural worlds.“A fascinating story, skilfully written, of a rebellious young woman’s remarkable courage.” - Jack Hodgins

“Exceptional.” - The Vancouver Sun

“Basran’s writing is by turns elegant and poetic.” - Quill & Quire

"A tender novel about identity and the search for belonging that is both humorous and heartbreaking. In Meena, Basran has created a feisty, complicated and irrepressible heroine." - Thrity Umrigar

“A sad story, ending in a misery born from that clash of cultures, but the writing is vivid, full of crackling dialogue, and the plot is completely absorbing…. Basran’s book reminds me of the work of the Pulitzer-prize winning novelist, Bengali American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, who also draws the outsider into the world of Indian immigrants to North America, vividly expressing their difficult adaptation…. She is clearly on the same path as Lahiri, a writer on the first step to greatness.” - Toronto Star

“Thought-provoking and compelling…. Timely and engaging.” - Winnipeg Free Press 

Gurjinder Basran’s debut novel, Everything Was Good-bye, was the winner of the “Search for the Great B.C. Novel Contest” in 2010 and was awarded the 2011 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for the most outstanding work of fiction by a B.C. author. As a manuscript, Everything Was Good-bye was a semi finalist for Amazon.com’s 2008 Breakthrough Novel Award Contest and earned her a place in The Vancouver Sun’s annual speculative arts and culture article “One’s to Watch.” Gurjinder studied creative writing at Simon Fraser University and the Banff Center for the Arts and currently lives in Delta, British Columbia, with her husband and two sons.